‘Dramatic increase’ in cloud adoption, says study

SINGAPORE, 20 APRIL 2011 – Companies worldwide have shown a “dramatic increase” in cloud computing adoption in the last two years, according to a commissioned global study.

Singapore, the only Asian country included in the study, leads developed countries in adopting cloud computing, with 91 per cent of companies currently using cloud compared to only 76 per cent last year.

The global survey was commissioned by Nasdaq-listed Savvis, Inc., a provider of cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises. It was carried out by Vanson Bourne, an independent research firm, and involved 480 IT decision makers in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, France and Germany.

The study revealed that in a span of two years, 82 per cent of companies have come to adopt cloud computing, compared to only 63 per cent previously. Two-thirds of users have adopted cloud only in the last 12 months while 90 per cent have already reported that they are already reaping some rewards in adopting cloud.

Savvis finds the results significant given that a few years back, cloud computing was not yet fully understood, particularly its benefits.

Organisational benefits

“In just one year, a significant number of IT decision makers have realised the benefits of cloud infrastructure services to drive efficiencies and a competitive advantage,” said Bryan Doerr, chief technology officer, Savvis.

“Cloud has become increasingly mainstream as evidenced in our study by the fact that 47 per cent of global IT leaders believe they should prioritise a cloud infrastructure solution over their own IT infrastructure for any new applications or services deployed,” Doerr added.

Among the benefits the companies said they got from adopting cloud, the top most are improved reliability (30 per cent), scalability (29 per cent) and lower total cost of ownership for their entire infrastructure.

But even with a rise in adoption, the study also revealed that security remains a chief concern for adoption, with 42 per cent of respondents saying so. Even then, 44 per cent of global cloud users do not have a formal process in place for assessing the security practices of their cloud provider.

Mark Smith, managing director, Asia, Savvis said: “We are seeing tremendous interest in this cloud solution amongst Singaporean companies who want to leverage greater efficiencies in their organisations. We look forward to working with more enterprise and government clients across Asia to help them plan out their migration path to cloud-based services.¨

In the US, 85 per cent of companies are now using cloud services while in the UK, 77 per cent are cloud users.